Horizon Labs was a fairly imposing place for Vito Crisoni as he pulled his van up to one of the building's industrial doors. Most times this door was used for the delivery of various supplies that the company needed for many of its research projects, be it in technology or given other material needed for company's research. Today, that delivery was a female Spotted Hyena named Akia and Vito could hear her in her carrier in the back chittering away in the sort of noises that humans typically thought sounded like laughter, not knowing that noise was the Hyena's way of saying it was afraid or at least nervous.
"Easy, girl," Vito promised to the nervous animal as he looked in the rearview mirror to observe as he brought the van to a halt in front of the doors with the van's rear doors facing the building's doors, "The people here aren't going to hurt you."
Of course, Vito didn't know for sure what would happen with regard to Akia's uplifting. She was an older Hyena that was near the natural end of her life, and the small zoo at which Vito worked had been willing to offer her to Horizon as part of their new project they were working on. He thought the name sounded like "Hermaphrodite," but he wasn't quite sure, and he ultimately figured that a lot of the supposed test would relate to Animalia in some way. He'd seen enough news reports on Horizon and Animalia to know that the two did a lot of work together and that Animalians seemed to get many new shots at life. In that, he and the officials that ran the zoo were fine with donating Akia, but he didn't know exactly what the company had planned. He only hoped that they wouldn't use Akia as food for Animalia's lions.
His promise seemed to calm Akia enough that she stopped moving around as much in the carrier she was in, and Vito made his way around to the back of the van and opened the doors as doors to the Horizon building opened and Judy stepped out to hold them open with Doctor Stein at the same time. The gray furred rabbit Animalian's nose twitched almost instinctively at the sight of the still mundane Spotted Hyena in the large wire cage as Vito secured a leash around the animal's neck and shoulders. Judy was grateful that the Hyena also presently had a muzzle on as well, as Hyenas were known to be one of the few predators actively ate bones and had the bite force to do so. Especially with the knowledge that while zoo animals might be more docile than those in the wild, due to being fed and not facing challenges over territory and so on, that didn't mean that among mundane animals that predatory instincts were removed. And Judy also knew that the Mountain Cotton Tail was on the menu of a host of predators already that naturally lived in North America.
"This project of yours will give Akia a new lease on life, right?" Vito asked as Akia jumped from the now open cage and to the sidewalk, though Vito held firmly to the leash.
"Yes," Doctor Stein commented, "Her life will likely be... different, but she will be younger and among Animalians, she will be welcome."
"Well... that's good," Vito answered, "because I've looked after her for years... and well... in many ways she deserves a good life. I think too many people take "the Lion King" a bit too literally with regard to how they characterized the hyenas in that movie. Nature isn't a battle of good versus evil the way Disney makes it seem. It's more on balance for survival in which all sides have one advantage or another. Some times one animal wins that "battle" and at other times it doesn't... but some folks just don't see that, and many of her clan have had to be sold to other zoos..."
"Don't worry, she will be welcome," Doctor Stein commented, "If you come with us, we can get her to the lab room for her uplifting and we'll go from there."
"And what are you testing again?" Vito asked, "the rest of the zoo staff told me you were calling it "Hermaphrodite" or something..."
"Hermaphroditus," Judy answered, though she kept an eye on Akia for the moment, "essentially a result of people petitioning Horizon to become actual hermaphrodites after the success with Typhoon and Waterlily... but they don't want to be Anacondas. One of the species that was asked for... WAS the Spotted Hyena."
"Oh," was all Vito could manage for the moment.
It sounded a bit odd, and many of the things he'd read about with regard to Animalia and Horizon often had an odd side to them. Though, the oddity had never really created large scale trouble. There were issues that popped up here and there that represented either instinctual or infrastructure issues to be over come, but in many ways the story of Animalia seemed to be one where "mad science" seemed to be more beneficial than harmful. And in the end, if Akia was welcomed and happy, he supposed he really couldn't complain.
"And will you administer the Animalia Virus for this test... because Akia doesn't like shots much," Vito told them.
"We have a water dish with the particular strain we're looking for in it," Judy answered and raised a hand up as Akia sniffed at her, "which will mirror how it spread initially and will be less invasive... though even after uplifting... there are a lot of Animalians that don't like shots, particularly those that were mundane Animals before becoming Animalians..."
Though, Judy was thankful that as Animalians they could accept the need for things like vaccinations. It was that sort of thing that assured that the vaccine was taken and that there wouldn't be cases of the Animalia Virus spreading uncontrolled and leading to a massive government crackdown. Doctor Stein nodded in agreement and surprisingly so did Vito, which Judy appreciated.
"Is there anything that she could trip over or knock into?" Vito inquired.
"The room in question is clean," Doctor Stein spoke, "it's a bit different from the rooms used for humans wanting to become Animalians, but it's safe and clean. Akia shouldn't have any troubles."
Vito nodded and let the two Horizon employees lead him and Akia through Horizon's hallways. They were lead to a larger room where two dog's water dishes lay in the middle of the room. Judy moved to a side to stand by a large viewing window that was often there for the observation of other experiments while Doctor Stein moved to open the door. Vito guided Akia to the door but stopped once he was in front of Doctor Stein.
"I'll guide her in and will remove leash harness and muzzle," Vito spoke, "You don't have to come in if her doses are already in the water bowls."
Doctor Stein nodded and stepped back to let Vito take Akia in. She looked up to Vito who waved her toward the water dishes and Akia soon made her way toward them with her ears erect. She found the bowls filled with water and being a bit thirsty, Akia was quick to start lapping up the water that she never noticed Vito leaving the room. She quickly downed both bowls before Akia actually felt anything and that made her pause. With a puzzled tilt of her head, Akia looked down to the part of her body that now felt strange.
It was her forepaws that seemed to ache a bit. It wasn't painful, and Akia seemed to be aware of that, but it still felt odd. She watched as her digits lengthened out, slowly becoming more hand-like than paw-like, which only puzzled Akia more. Hands were something humans, like Vito had, not hyenas. None in her clan that she remembered had hands, but Akia couldn't help but look at them for a moment or two. She was so captivated by it that she didn't notice the next odd tingling sensation, though as it intensified between her legs, Akia could ignore it.
Akia fell to her knees and raised herself onto them to look down to find the source of the tingling. Hyena females were known for an enlarged clitoris that worked with their reproductive system in such a way that it had actually become such that the first people that had found Hyenas and documented them for science described them as naturally occurring hermaphrodites and having individuals with both genders. It wasn't until more detailed scientific studies of hyena anatomy was done to find that the earlier assumption was not the case. However, at present, Akia found that at least for her that situation was changing. Her clitoris was growing larger and more erect and more like a male hyena's penis that it might have appeared before. She even noted a sheath starting to form around its base and a swelling sensation on either side of that sheath.
"Oh," Akia actually spoke and nearly jumped when shi found that hir voice was deeper.
The jump soon produced the sensation of a bounce on hir chest and Akia looked down again. This time she saw something shi knew was part of human anatomy as shi could see two breasts swelling out on hir chest. That only made Akia practically "yip" and leap to hir feet, only to be surprised further by landing on hir hind legs and standing like the rabbit she'd seen earlier. It made Akia start to put a few things together, like that they had made hir like the rabbit. That made hir wonder if the rabbit was also a hermaphrodite, as the rabbit was wearing clothes like a human.
"Akia?" a female voice spoke over the intercom, perking Akia's ears, "how do you feel?"
"Strange," Akia answered, "but some things seem to make some sense now... though at the same time... I'm different from what I was."
"That is because you've been uplifted as part of Project Hermaphroditus," the female voice answered, "it's designed to make Animalians that are hermaphrodites... having both genders."
"Like you?" Akia asked.
"No, I'm completely female," the female voice spoke, "You can call me Judy."
"So... am I..." Akia began.
"You aren't Animalia's first hermaphrodite," Judy answered, "though you are the first mammalian hermaphrodite."
"Strange," Akia answered, not sure on how to see hirself now.
"I'm sure it is," Judy answered, "If you I like, I could place a call and see if one of other Animalian herms could help if you're having issues with adjusting."
"That would be nice," Akia answered, "Is Vito okay?"
"I'm fine," came Vito's voice over the intercom.
"Can he come with me?" Akia asked.
"If he wants to," Judy said slowly.